How To Paint Particleboard / Laminate Furniture

Remember these sturdy Broyhill bookcases I got on Craigslist for our schoolroom? Well, they were hiding a little secret....

While the front and the drawers were made out of real wood, the sides, shelves and backs were made out of what I like to call the fake stuff. Yup, there was particleboard all over the place!
After seeing this inspiring image....

I decided that painting those babies white and putting them on either side of the window was just the thing to do.  But what about the fake stuff?  I knew from the start that the paint job needed to be indestructible. It needed to withstand three boys and the constant friction of books and other school items for the next 15 years. ha! Yeah, I did NOT want chipping paint and since we were dealing with particleboard (laminated wood?) I decided to do a little research.  I combined the advice of different painting experts just to be on the safe side (I was scared remember :-) I bought what I needed and took the plunge.

Here they are after eight months of daily use, nary a scratch to be seen....

I was so impressed that I recently painted our dining room table using the same process even though it is made out of solid wood.  I did not even sand it beforehand!

Before

After

Here is the scoop on how I did it: 

First I cleaned the bookcases thoroughly with a damp cloth. I then applied two coats of this primer...

 

This oil based primer is key!  It allows you to prime without sanding or 'roughing up'  the particleboard beforehand.  The odor is strong so I only use it out in the garage with the door fully opened.  I would not use it indoors, especially if you have little ones running around. To apply the two coats of  primer I used a small foam roller similar to this one..

This primer dries quickly, in about 2 hours, but I waited 12 hours between coats as a precaution.  After all the priming was done I applied one coat of Olympic's Zero-voc, white, latex paint in semigloss.  It can be found at Lowes.

After the paint was fully cured I applied two coats of Varathane Floor Finish, waiting about 12 hours between coats. It was boiling hot and bone dry here in Texas when I worked on this project, so it took only three days for the paint to cure. If you try this project in a cool or humid climate you might want to wait a bit longer for the paint to dry.

I used the brand Varathane recommended by the talented Holly from  

Life in the Fun Lane . It has not yellowed the white paint yet and it is so easy to apply! I now coat all my painted pieces with it. 

 So with just a little elbow grease the bookcases, fake stuff and all, went from this..

to this...

and best of all they have withstood the test of time amazingly well!
I am more than happy to answer any questions in the comments section below so ask away.  If you want to see more of my makeovers go here or here or even here :) Happy painting everyone!

Linking up to Miss Mustard Seed.

Schoolroom Progress Pictures

Before

This is what the schoolroom looked like on the day we moved in.  The paint on the walls was a pink tinged color (of course!) and I could not wait to whip out my paint roller.  We put many sample swatches on the wall and finally decided on the color Lemon Ice from the Martha Stewart line.

 After painting one wall I began to have second thoughts. The color looked way too bright almost like a neon yellow. I thought that the terrible lighting in the room was probably the culprit (it was nighttime after all) and decided to press on and paint the rest of the room hoping it would look better in the morning. What a mistake!!  The color looked even worse in the daylight.

 The color looks softer and not as bad in the picture above due to lighting but it was really pretty awful . There was no way I could live with that color on the walls so I decided to repaint the room Salt Glaze also by Martha Stewart.  While I was busy painting away my little men were having a blast making knight's armor out of cardboard and aluminum foil.  At one point I almost fell off my ladder when I turned around and saw these two looking at me!

Ahh second time was a charm! Salt Glaze turned out to be the perfect color for the space....

After all the painting was done we ripped out the carpet and put in new flooring.  I also painted the bookshelves and a red ikea table we had simply white 

(a Benjamin Moore color). You can find a tutorial explaining the process I used to do that here.

BEFORE

Since we are still in the process of finishing this room this is not an after picture but more of a "progress made so far" picture.  I need to put up the roman shade that will hide the gorgeous meter right outside the window.  I also need to arrange the books and other items on the shelves and hang the map and artwork on the walls.

After  so far......

On the other side of the room there is a closet with double doors.

 

We though it would be perfect for stashing books and other homeschooling material. A just close the door on the chaos kinda thing. So hubby made shelves..  

Here they are all painted and filled up....

and lest I discourage any homeschooling mother out there with pictures of pristine homeschooling areas this is what the table looked like tonight!

Ouch! Just keeping it real :)!  After Pics coming soon...

You can see a makeover of  my boy's play area with complete before and afters  here!